Penalty Shot
by LordByronMudkippington
Summary: Ruby and Weiss go to a pee-wee soccer game to cheer on their daughter. Weiss is one of those parents. (This is for day eight of White Rose Week. Topic: Free.)


It was a beautiful day for pee-wee soccer. The sun was shining, but not hot enough to risk any dehydration. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, and the ones that remained were all white and fluffy. The stands at the local athletic club field were filled with proud parents and a couple random, curious spectators. In the middle of the stands, cheering on their young daughter, were Ruby and Weiss. Yang, who was sitting right above the married couple, was cheering with them for her favorite niece. As for Blake, she had a prior commitment of not being there.

"Come on, Autumn!" Ruby clapped as their daughter kicked the ball down the field and hustled after it. She was one of a handful on the field who were actually trying to play the game. Some were doing the bare minimum that would keep them on the field, and several others were standing around completely lost. That was just how sports went when the kids were that young, and Ruby understood that. She'd been that young too, and she'd learned to encourage those kids who didn't really know what they were doing.

Weiss, on the other hand, had a slightly different take on the situation. Despite having never played a sport in her life, she was the one who trained their daughter the most for soccer. She'd spent a lot of time online learning the ins and outs of the game, all very important technical information that a seven year old finds eminently fascinating. In her mind, having a child who looked lost on the field was unacceptable, and she had to make sure that little Autumn was the best player on the field at all times. Ruby had tried to get her to ease off, but she might as well have told Blake to stop being moody.

At least she'd gotten Weiss to come to the games at all. She'd never shown any interest in athletics before, and she'd worried that Autumn wouldn't have both of her moms cheering her on at her games should she choose to start playing sports. Well, she did, but to Ruby's surprise, it hadn't been hard at all to get Weiss to go. She'd insisted on going, which had been great! At first. Now, she'd started to wonder if there was a way to keep Weiss _away_ from the games. She was on her best behavior at the moment, but the game had only begun recently. It was only a matter of time...

"Ugh, come on! Ref!" Well, there she went. Ruby sighed and sunk low on the bench as Weiss jumped to her feet in anger. One of the opposing players had run into Autumn, but the referee hadn't blown his whistle. From a distance, Ruby could tell the poor guy was college-age and likely just wetting his feet in the profession. It was more for the experience than the money. And boy, was he about to get an experience... "Where's the whistle, ref?!"

To his credit, he didn't seem to have any reaction to Weiss's yelling. Maybe it made him more nervous, but it didn't necessarily show. He wouldn't have been the first referee to have a reaction to her wife's shrill screech. She just hoped - pleaded, really - that there wouldn't be any more mistakes involving her daughter, so there wouldn't be any more opportunities for the other parents to stare and judge them.

That was but a pipe dream. Another missed call had Weiss up and screaming again, but it wasn't only concerning the ref's incompetency. She was shouting about how the other team was engaging in crooked play. The dirty, 'anything to win' shenanigans of elementary schoolers. Ruby looked back at Yang, her eyes wide and desperate for help. Her sister was sitting there with her phone out, gleefully recording Weiss's latest 'angry soccer parent' outburst. She looked around at all the eyes on them, especially two pairs of narrowed stares that more than likely came from the parents of the child Weiss was accusing of foul play. Ruby laughed nervously before groaning and withdrawing as far into herself as she could. If she scooted far enough away, maybe nobody would know that they were there together.

Things were mostly calm through the rest of the game, which was as much of a relief as Ruby could get. As much as she wanted to enjoy the game, she had her concentration torn between watching their daughter and whispering to Weiss to try and keep her from embarrassing them in front of all the other parents. Sometimes she could be more childish than their literal seven year old. Not that she'd ever admit to that, of course. To her, vigorously berating the referee was just her way of keeping things honest. Honestly anxiety-inducing.

After the game was over, which ended up as a victory for Autumn's team, Ruby headed down to the field to congratulate her daughter. She hugged her tightly and told her what a good job she'd done. "That was a very good goal you made, sweetie!" She made sure Autumn drank some of her water, then looked up to find her wife. Usually Weiss was right down with her telling their daughter how good she'd done, as any proud parent would. She'd thought the victory would quell her anger, but by the way she was cornering the referee, it would appear that wasn't the case. "Oh dear... Please stay here, sweetie. Mommy will be right back."

"I cannot believe they allow you to referee games of this importance! Do you even have a license to do this? Let me see your refereeing license this instant!" Away from the game and the other parents, Weiss was dressing down the poor ref in no uncertain terms. By the time Ruby got over there, he looked positively terrified of this soccer mom who barely came up to his chin in heels. Ruby didn't blame him: most people's fight or flight mechanics were activated whenever Hurricane Schnee barreled down upon them.

"M-Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to step away, or I'll..." He stammered out what sounded like a threat, but it came across as more of a 'please spare my life' kind of deal. That was a clear sign of weakness, and the great Weiss shark could smell it in the water. She was going to pounce and destroy another referee if Ruby didn't intervene. This was not what she'd expected when she'd promised to stick by Weiss 'for better or worse'.

"Weiss, honey, light of my life..." She slipped behind Weiss and started massaging her shoulders, trying her damnedest to calm her down. From past experiences, she knew it only did so much, but it was the best she could think of outside of knocking her unconscious with a bat and dragging her home. "Our daughter wants to celebrate her team's victory, and she would really appreciate hearing about how good she did from you." Hopefully that would work...

"Alright then." Without missing a beat, Weiss turned around and headed for the bench, leaving both Ruby and the referee in shock. No matter how many times it worked, it was still surprising that just mentioning their kid could make Weiss's emotions change on a dime. Ruby wiped her brow with a sigh of relief, but her troubles weren't over yet. There was still damage control to be done.

"Hey man, uh... I'm sorry about my wife. She gets really... passionate, about soccer. I'm sure she didn't mean anything bad she said to you."

"Like how I got my refereeing degree at clown college?"

"Uhh, yeahhh..." Oh Weiss... "She really didn't mean it and I would really, _really_ appreciate it if you didn't tell the club owners and get my wife banned from the grounds. Our daughter would be crushed if she couldn't come to see her games." She hated to pull out the kid card, but it was the best card she had in her hand to play. Weiss always left her in a tough spot when it came to keeping these venues from having signs put up saying 'Do not let this woman in'. With the way the referee was looking over at Weiss, who was now speaking with their daughter, she felt like it might be working.

"Alright, I won't say anything, but please keep her from yelling at me again. There's only so much I can take." His eyes darted over to Weiss again, a flicker of fear in them. Ruby sighed but smiled through it, thanking him before heading for her family. She wanted to take Weiss to the side and try again to convince her to mellow out, but she stopped when she heard her and their daughter talking.

"I'm proud of you, Autumn. You did so well today!" Weiss hugged Autumn, the love shining in her eyes having completely overtaken any anger she may have had previously. "You wiped the floor with the other team!"

"I did!" Autumn giggled and hugged Weiss back, melting Ruby's heart. How could she have a stern conversation with Weiss now after seeing those two being so loving and adorable together? Maybe she was doing it on purpose to get out of what was certainly to come, but darnit, it was working. "Can we have lunch, mom? I'm hungry!"

"Absolutely. Let's go find your mother and-" She turned and found Ruby staring at them, startling her. "Oh! Well, there she is." Holding Autumn's hand, she walked over to Ruby and smiled at her. "Our daughter would like to have lunch. Are you ready to go?" She looked at Weiss, then down to their equally-happy daughter, and she just couldn't bear to rain on their parade. Even if Weiss's parade was fueled by competitive anger and could use a rainout or two.

"Yes. Yes I am." She smiled and took Autumn's other hand, the three of them heading to the parking lot. The talk about Weiss's behavior could come later. For now, she was going to spend the rest of the day enjoying the good life with her two favorite people in the world. There was honestly nothing better than that.


End file.
